TENNESSEE – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released a new report that shows a decline of almost 2 million in teens who reported vaping in 2020. The report comes on the heels of other studies that confirmed teen smoking overall has shown a dramatic decline in recent years. The Tennessee Smoke Free Association, a trade organization with a focus on Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR) through the use of personal vaporizers, today applauded the news of dropping e-cigarette use among teens.

“There has been a significant effort on the part of the Tennessee Smoke Free Association, and other organizations like ours around the world, to discourage those under 21 years of age from using e-cigarette and vapor products,” said Dimitris Agrafiotis, Executive Director of the TSFA. “As with the previous studies, we have also been very encouraged by the confirmation that using vapor products does not typically lead to smoking traditional tobacco products. Many of our association members–myself included–are former cigarette smokers who have kicked the habit completely by responsibly using vapor products.”

The CDC’s study comes as health organizations have raised the alarm about teen vaping, leading to regulations in some states that have nearly put those who sell vapor products out of business. Many of the retailers in Tennessee that sell the products are small business owners, who have been struggling during the pandemic and have had to deal with different lockdown orders across the state by adapting quickly–for example, offering curbside services.

“The Tennessee Smoke Free Association continues to support regulations that prohibit teens from smoking or vaping. We do not market to teens or initiate vape use to non-smokers. We fully support strong regulations like limiting tobacco sales to those 21 and up, and harsher punishments for anyone caught selling nicotine-containing or illegal vape products to minors,” said Agrafiotis. “But we will continue to fight for responsible adults who use vaping as a way to kick the harmful and deadly habit of smoking.”

The Tennessee Smoke Free Association is consumer advocacy group and trade organization with a focus on Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR) through the use of personal vaporizers (electronic cigarettes) and other smokeless tobacco products shown to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with smoking. We focus on the prevention of tobacco harm and seek to cooperate with the Tennessee Health Agencies to function for the greater health of the Tennessee public as well as monitoring the legislation for or against our movement of tobacco harm reduction. The TSFA was formed in 2014 to provide support and education regarding alternative methods of THR after seeing many years of failed attempts by our public health agencies to reduce smoking rates in the region.

*The TSFA has local small business owners across the state available for interviews, including on camera. Please call/text 615-812-5272 for more information.

Contact: Dimitris Agrafiotis, [email protected]
Ph: 423-451-6150
https://tnsmokefree.org/
Or Kara Owen, [email protected]
Ph: 615-812-5272